Library staff face threatening behaviour and inappropriate conduct

THREATENING behaviour, abuse and inappropriate conduct are just some of the issues facing staff and members of Glasgow Life.

With 18 million people accessing these facilities across the city every year, it would seem only a minority pose as a threat to employees and associates, with just six customers banned from leisure facilities in the last 12 months.

The information was obtained through a Freedom of Information Request to Glasgow Life.

Reasons for the longterm withdrawal of their membership included assaulting a member of staff, threatening behaviour, violent actions displayed towards employees, inappropriate conduct, theft and misuse of a membership card.

A second freedom of information request revealed that since January 2018 there have been 38 separate incidents of anti-social behaviour recorded in Glasgow libraries.

One issue of physical violence, 25 complaints of verbal abuse and five verbal threats were included in the figures along with two break-ins, two accusations of indirect behaviour and three incidents of physical posturing.

Last year also saw 23 individuals being excluded for various reasons including verbal and physical abuse directed at members of staff and the public.

Others were caught-out persistently using another customer’s membership card and pin code to access additional time on the library PCs despite repeated warnings, while some customers used different identities to access library services and computers.

Glasgow Life has confirmed it does not accept this type of behaviour in any of its facilities and will deal with each incident accordingly.

A spokesman for the group said: “With more than 18 million attendances across our venues each year, inappropriate or unacceptable behaviour at our facilities is rare. However, we will not tolerate any abuse of our staff and we will take appropriate action to deal with any instances.”